The name comes from the land grant that once covered the area, La Rinconada de Los Gatos, “the corner of the cats.” The cats were the cougars and bobcats that still live in the hills. In English the name is often said lawss-GAT-us, though many people say it closer to the Spanish.
The town grew up around Forbes Mill in the 1850s and 1860s, incorporated in 1887 and became an orchard and resort town before turning into a suburb of San Jose from the 1950s. It covers 11.6 square miles and had 33,529 people at the 2020 census. Netflix has its headquarters here.